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the airships and Zues are just awesome! that is some impressive work!

Hey I am seriously glad you made it to Dakka!

I stumbled across your blogspot about 6months ago...and wasted a whole day at work just daydreaming of the win.

Your work is amazing.

Your work is spot on man. I want to see that airship completed.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Well, I was working on the Ork mole and tried some OSL painting.
However, I'm not very satisfied with the result

so I will have to experiment with this some more.

In the meantime, I decided to do something new.

"Oh NOES!" some of you may cry.
You're right, currently I have a hard time concentrating on my projects and especially finishing them up.

But there is light on the horizon, as this new project is...


...Well, the re-design of the ATHENA!
Yes!
She's back on my desk
I hope to hear some happy cries and see some dances through the internet

As discussed I am no longer satisfied with the "Aircraft Carrier" idea. The reason is simply scale.
If I was to make her a "plausable" carrier, she'd have to be a lot bigger - even with VTOL aircraft.
So lets take another walk around her hull and upper deck - I have already put the "island" aside.
The side with the torpedo launchers and bomb racks

the front with the Siege gun and quad las-cannons

the rear with the propellers and the twin auto-cannons

As well as the deck with the multiple rocket launcher, the Hydras, and the Nemesis CIWS

and in the rear the elevator with the STRIX on it


Looking back at my original plans you can see the ATHENA was not designed as a real carrier - but I got carried away while building *grin*

So what purpose should she serve then?
Her main task will be to support ground attacks by delivering massive firepower and at the same time either establish air-superiority or at least defend herself against any aerial attacks.

For the ground attack role she currently has:
-Siege Cannon
-2x Mk XV Imperial Torpedo Launcher with Mk VIII Draconis Melta Torpedoes
-2x Quad Las-Cannons
-Missile/punisher combo
-multiple rocket launcher
-2x 500lbs Bomb racks

For Air Defense she currently has:
-2 Hydra turrets
-Nemesis CIWS
-4 twin Autocannons
-4 twin Machine Guns (they were mounted on the island, and I will re-use them)
-STIX Interceptor VTOL

So I decided to "open her up" again, and removed the entire deck.

gave her a new sheet of plasticard for the rear area (where the elevator used to be)


And this layout gives me a good 30 cm for the actual bridge area (on which I want to mount the two Hydras and TWO Nemesis turrets), as well as it gives me room for another big turret - symbolized by the wooden box.

So what do you think?

What kind of weapon should I use for this large forward turret? Any more weapons that would be plausable or neccessary?
Well, let me know
Thanks for reading
Cheers
Klaus

Just jawdropping stunning! Finished airship would look awesome

lol the hell man? Did you wake up thinking to your self "today I am going to upload a bunch of jaw dropping conversions on dakka sit back and watch as the dakkaites crap themselves"?

You have some seriously incredible conversion work all of it is very unique and I do not think I have seen the like anywhere. Unbeleivable stuff man you get 2 very orky thumbz up.

My jaw just hit the floor your skills are godlike.

Happy cries and dancing! Nic eot see this one going again; really loved that ship.

Whne it comes to the big tower, I feel a ground-aimed gun would be a bit awkward unless it had a parabolic trajectory; maybe a huge mortar or a missile silo, like on a nuclear submarine? Vortex missiles anyone?

Still looking good...I know you've been working on some of things for yonks, but when you are done they will be unmatched!

@CommisarKhaine - so how about something like a Manticore? Wouldn't that look cool?

@kenshin620 - if you run across a "Blood2dawn" in WoT, be gentle

I love that airship, it reminds me of a secrete project I've got in my head. You should slap a vortex missile on that thing.

Holy mother of all orgasms!!!! :O

The people demand moar!

Something like a manticore would indeed look pretty cool there I think.

And that's pretty much all I can say apart from 'Wow', 'fething amazing' and maybe some more 'wow'

Hey ... constructive suggestion. i make lots of custom orky bitz. the whatchamakalitz you are making look great, no question but i dont bother with a box cutter for wearing the sides of the orky bitz. If you go to your local salvation army they should have a bunch of old bread knifes. the serated ones. these are great for tearing up the sides of orky plates with. they naturally poduce a jagged edge. just a thought.
question. what kind of glue do you use on the Plasticard. i have not been able to find a bonder that works well.
BTW your stuf f looks awsome. i love it.

Klaus, not Santa wrote:@CommisarKhaine - so how about something like a Manticore? Wouldn't that look cool?

@kenshin620 - if you run across a "Blood2dawn" in WoT, be gentle

That would definitely fit the bill . Will you go for four missiles in a row or a control turret and two missiles to each side? Or a box launcher like you see on titans?

Loving all this steampunk stuff

Subscribed like a motherf**ker

Thanks guys,
from your feedback it seems that it was the right decission to change the ATHENA all together.
In regards to the weapons discussion, I am considering to have two banks of AA-Missiles, maybe two vertical launchers for Manticore-style missiles, and a main turret with a tripple Earthshaker(?) - thanks to Freakazoid @ WIP - this could give her some long-range direct and indirect firepower and would make her look like a big bad battleship
With this settled I immediately started to work on the new bridge and deck layout.
As previously mentioned, I'm looking along the lines of the US Arleigh and the Russian Udaloy Class destroyers.
They do have some nice deck lines.

So I experimented with the deck layout

As you can see, I will keep the landing pad for the VTOL and even an elevator - I only removed the "sunken" one, as this was too limiting.

To keep it along the original design lines of the ATHENA and the Steampunk theme, I drew some ornaments on .5mm plasticard.

and created portholes form a plasticard-rod


Mounted these walls give the first level a very nice outline


Then I did the front plate and ornamented it


Eventhough the lines and angles are a bit modern-ish, I still think they fit the ATHENA well, don't you think?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.
Cheers
Klaus
@sennacherib - thanks for the tip - I will try this out next

Wow...
Are you sure this isn't santas workshop?
It's all so beautiful...
Also that irship reminds me of the ones from Guns of Tanith (I think that is the right bok)

Nice work, very neat. those weapon options are scary...

Something about this seems completely plausible.

Thanks guys.

Well, last night I continued with the forward plates of the bridge's first floor.

It takes some time to cut all the ornaments and fit everything into the angles.
But I'm very pleased with the lines.


I will leave the rear walls open for the time being, till I'm 100% sure how the rest of the bridge will look and maybe I'll use this area for another Mural Window or such...


With the two Hydras in place.


And to solve the mystery of the missing doors in the front plates.
The actual nose area with the 2 Twin Auto-Cannons and the rocket launcher, can be accessed via the two doors marked in red.


And for the area between the nose and the bridge, I plan to do some hatches, like in the image below. But before I do that, I have to look into the final position of the big turret, as well as all other weapons I may place there (potentially the vertical lunchers for the Manticore and some AA missiles).


We'll see.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments, feedback and suggestions.
Cheers
Klaus

Talk about attention to detail... Impressive work!

H
O
L
Y
C
R
A
P
!
Your thread is so inspiring that i may not be able paint or build this weekend, just sitting and taking it all in.
MORE...
MORE....
MOOOORRRREEE!!!!

Absolutely awesome work. The scope and attention to detail is incredible - and I get the feeling you have only just (re)begun!

I spent yesturday reading thorugh your whole thread over @ warseer. You sir are batsh*t bughouse nuts in a totally awsome way. I hope you enter that in some of your local modelling contests.

Thanks guys.

@wolfshadow and worldwarme: thanks for taking the time to go through the whole post again - actually quite a lot to digest. I just checked on my blog, and the first ATHENA post was on 22. May 2009 - http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-project-code-name-athena.html - while today was the 71st post on the ATHENA

Well, some of you may remember this group, that I built for the 60mm base contest at WIP. And despite them not faring well in the contest, I want to use them on the ATHENA


So I started to build the upper level of the bridge, with some windows for the briefing room

note the shutters.

Then I continued with the front plate

and ornaments for it

I think this front looks quite pleasing


one of the side panels received some patched-up damage

*
The upper level of the bridge fits neatly into the new outlines



Then I build another shutter - this time for the glass roof of the conference room



I'm really pleased how this comes together


and lastly I build an access ladder to the upper roof last night

I hope you like it, and I look forward to your comments, feedback, and suggestions.
Cheers
Klaus

I keep on being amazed by the level of detail. I know I'd have given up by now . Nice work!

Outstanding work sir. The depth of your work is truly inspiring.

wow... this is... I have no works!!! Incredible!!!

Mind = blown. If I could fight alongside that army I would be honored